iii.If Russell talking about individual people, what he says is
patently false:

(1)My son’s origin, growth & beliefs and shaped by his
parents beliefs and for what we take to be good reasons;
not accidental at all

(2)My growth, hopes, fears, loves, beliefs are not purely
accidental; many of them I have chosen and for good
reasons

c.No fire, heroism, no intensity of thought/feeling can preserve an
individual life beyond the grave

i.But the causes an individual stands for can and do outlive
individuals

d.All the labor of the ages, all devotion, all inspiration, all human
genius, all of Man’s achievement are destined to extinction in vast
death of solar system and universe in ruins

2.One’s philosophy of life must be build on these truths

3.And they (that is, the scientific beliefs about the origin and future of world)
provide “a firm foundation of unyielding despair”

a.Why? Both Gould and Dawkins claimed that science provides a
positive view of the universe (“uplift” one calls it)

b.There is purpose and meaning in nature–there certainly is value

c.And there is certainly purpose, meaning, and value in culture

d.Russell himself claims that the death–in the exceedingly distant
future--of earth and universe is not something people really do worry
about

i.“If you accept the ordinary laws of science, you have to
suppose that human life and life in general on this planet will
die out in due course . . . the sort of thing to which the earth is
tending -- something dead, cold, and lifeless. I am told that
that sort of view is depressing, and people will sometimes tell
you that if they believed that, they would not be able to go on
living. Do not believe it; it is all nonsense. Nobody really
worries about much about what is going to happen millions of
years hence. . . nobody is really seriously rendered unhappy by
the thought of something that is going to happen to this world
millions and millions of years hence.” (from “Why I’m not a
Christian”)

4.Nature has created Man, who is a being superior to nature in virtue of
his ability to judge and evaluate the works of nature

a.We are still subject to nature’s power (e.g., death)

b.But have knowledge of good and evil (something nature lacks)

c.Are free to examine and criticize this controlling parent (nature)

i.And our salvation comes from our ability to do this

ii.Religious instincts satisfied by this examination

5.Distinguishes the world of fact/power/force/tyranny/nature (which is
relentlessly negative) from the ideal world (of morality and beauty and
good ness and perfection)

a.Much in the world of fact is bad and does not agree with our
ideals/values